Category Archives: Analytics

Are your mobile users converting good enough?

This information is critical for every website owner to monitor.

There was a time when all website user statistics could be tracked based on visitors from one source. With the dependence on mobile devices, it has become a necessity to track mobile activity on your website and compare it to tablet and PC use -especially with respect to conversion rates.

You need to periodically track the conversion rates on each device that accesses your site. If mobile device conversion rates are significantly lower than desktop or tablet conversion rates, it may indicate a problem. Conversion rates are expected to be lower for businesses that require lengthy data entry or credit card information; but if the conversion goal is simply to obtain email addresses, then there shouldn’t be a discrepancy in conversion rates between mobile users and other devices.

From a recent report by Smart Insights it is clear that for e-commerce sites, mobile conversion rates are significantly lower. This happens while mobile usage for e-commerce is on the rise.

You should analyze each and every goal you have and segment the conversion rate by device to see if mobile conversion is significantly lower than desktop conversion. One simple way to do so is by using Zoom Analytics’ Segmentation. Just select the goal you wish to analyze (use the ClickWizard to define your goals), then segment by device. You will immediately see the conversion rate of each sub-segment for the selected goal. In the example below you can see that this particular website has significantly higher conversion among PC users for the goal ‘Contact’. Only 3% of mobile devices visitors had converted, while 8% of desktop visitors converted. This clearly indicates a problem with mobile devices that has to be further investigated and fixed.

Goal Conversion Rate By Device

It is extremely beneficial to analyze and segment your website visitors by device, so that you can work on the weaker medium (which will most likely be the mobile device segment). Since mobile conversion rates may be a struggle for many business owners, here are some useful points to keep in mind.

Key issues

• iOS doesn’t support Flash– Flash-based elements on your website will be lost for iOS users. This is unfortunate since it creates a barrier for iOS conversions.

• Website design consistency — try to choose or modify your design with mobile devices in mind. Always check your website from several mobile devices to determine that mobile users are viewing a true reflection of your website design. Using a responsive design does not mean everything will work perfectly well.

• Check for JavaScript issues. There might be different behavior on different browsers, devices or operating systems, as they all have an affect on how the code runs on the device. The more sophisticated the website code is, the higher the chances it won’t behave exactly the same in all environments.

• Website speed — Although your design may look okay on mobile or tablet devices, the response time may vary from PC to mobile. Mobile devices are much faster than they were a few years ago but they are still not comparable to desktops, performance-wise.

• Different software versions — In many cases, the software version of add-ons and plugins that users have on their devices can affect your website’s quality and vary from version to version, as much as it varies from device to device.

• Monitor device conversion rate over time. If you are using Zoom Analytics just select the ‘Trend’ view and you will see conversion rate over time for specific goal you’re analyzing.

What else can be done?

If you identified that mobile devices have lower conversion and there is nothing obvious you can do about it, you can offer them an incentive using a targeted campaign. You can use Zoom Analytics dynamic Greeting Bar to show a specific message or offer only to mobile device users. Sometimes a simple 5% discount coupon is enough. You can also suggest they leave their email and send them a link to their current spot in the conversion funnel. Then try and bring them back when they are using a desktop device by sending a link during working hours.

Why you must know which day of the week has the highest conversion rate and how to leverage the data to optimize your website conversion rates.

Importance of conversion rate patterns

It is critical to incorporate tools that break down all of the data into simple, yet comprehensive graphs to ensure that your marketing efforts are beneficial.

Two possible ways to analyze your conversion rate data are:

1) Determine which days have the highest conversion rates

Once you set a goal for conversion — in this case the goal is registering on the site — you can segment the goal by day-of-week and then clearly see which day receives the highest conversion rates.

In the example illustrated in the graph below, Saturday yields the highest conversion rates, while Friday clearly displays the lowest conversion rates.

Conversion Segmentation By Day-Of-Week

In this case, you can focus your marketing campaigns to reach potential customers on Saturdays, since that is your most successful day. This is one way to interpret your data and can be measured over time. Always remember that the statistics may change and it is important to go back and do the analysis again every once in a while. Especially if you acted upon what you found in order to improve the overall conversion rate.

Another option for responding to the results displayed in the graph is to focus some marketing efforts to your Friday visitors with special deals using targeted campaigns. Entice them with free temporary subscriptions to your products and services, or free gifts for signing up for your newsletter. By targeting this specific segment you encourage them to convert, without affecting other segments or cohorts.

When analyzing this graph, you can see that simple segmentation provides a baseline for you to build on and modify your marketing plans if required.

2) Let the BI engine find meaningful segments automatically

The BI Engine can determine which days have the highest conversion rates, versus the highest number of visitors.

When comparing the two graphs below, you can see that although the number of visitors is highest on Mondays, the conversion rate is highest on Tuesdays.

Most marketers would direct social media campaigns on Mondays, assuming that they would reach the largest audience and as a result, increase their conversion rates. Although visitors are extremely important, knowing what day your target market is in active mode, will lead to more conversions.

Zoom Analytics’ BI engine analyzes all the collected data automatically and finds cohorts that have high or low conversion. In this case the BI engine found that in the dimension of day-of-week there is a meaningful cohort – Tuesday is the most lucrative day for marketing campaigns. This tool aids marketers with analysis and strategies. In this case, since the BI engine suggests that Tuesday be the focus for additional campaigns, there are some strategies that you can implement.

Marketing strategies based on the BI Engine recommendations

Focus on increasing traffic to your site on Tuesdays through social media campaigns and paid ads

Saturday has the lowest conversion rate, so create an inbound campaign that targets viewers on Saturday by offering them special discounts, or free gifts for signing up for your newsletter

Offer your Saturday visitors the option of reminder emails so they can sign up later. This lets you try and convert them at later time

Website Conversion Rates, SEO and Website Optimization have become overwhelming for many business owners. The pressure to attract traffic and unique visitors weighs on the minds of many, but website traffic alone is not enough. Companies are incorporating conversion strategies and measuring conversion rates.

What Is Visitor Conversion Rate?

A conversion rate or “visitor conversion rate” is a term used to define the percentage of website visitors who are “converted” from passive visitors into active visitors. It is the percentage of users who take a desired action. Passive visitors will read through your content and then leave. That’s it. Those who are converted into active visitors will either buy your product, sign up for your newsletter, sign up for your course, or click on links that you request. Converted visitors can be seen as visitors who achieve your website goals. When tracking visitors to your site, it is important to track the number of visitors separately from the conversion rates so that you can monitor your true website performance. Pure number of visitors, without conversion rate can hide the real picture. The percentage of visitors who took action on your site is the conversion rate. If out of 100 visitors per day, two people were converted into active visitors by purchasing your product for example, then your daily conversion rate is 2%.

Visitor website conversion

How to Rank Visitors

The most important thing is to remain consistent when analyzing your converted customers. You will have repeat visitors who may continue to purchase your product and therefore increase your conversion rate. But then you might also track your conversion rate based on unique visitors. It is okay to analyze both sectors, but it is critical that you separate the data in order to have true numbers. If all of your conversion rates come from repeat clients, then you must re-strategize your social media and marketing plans.

Frequency of Conversion Rate Analysis

This schedule will differ from company to company, but there are some guidelines. If you measure your conversion rates weekly, you may not obtain true numbers. If you measure your conversion rates once or twice a year, you won’t be able to correct issues since you won’t see conversion rates drop. The ideal frequency for monitoring conversion rates is monthly, but may vary depending on the nature of your business and number of website visitors. This will provide enough data in order to track your peak business times and catch low conversion rates in a reasonable period.

Why Conversion Rates are Important

Conversion rates are the single most important indicator of your websites’ performance. If your conversion rates are low, then you must analyze what went wrong. If you have a new website and conversion rates are just not increasing, then you may want to review not only your marketing campaign, but also your web site’s design. Is your design easy to navigate? Is it clear and concise? Does it have enough white space so that it doesn’t look busy and cluttered? These are areas that you will need to consider.